Comparing Pets
by Zatroopa
Summary: "The Maka of six months ago would have said that nothing would stop them from defeating Madness, avenging their friends and family and turning her Weapon into a Death Scythe. That not even the alliance that seemed to emerge between the Kishin and Arachne Gorgon would stop them with the aid of their friends. What a stupid girl." Rated T for implied nastiness and dark themes.


Just had this idea and I wanted to put pen to paper, or more ideas into words for this context, hope no one minds and that you all enjoy reading it. It has a slightly dark theme in that everything's gone wrong for our protagonists and that there's not really happy ending.

Warning: Implied rape, Stockholm Syndrome, Broken spirits and a generally dark atmosphere.

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The moon was out again.

It wasn't happy like it used to be. Now it looked more sad, maybe the missing teeth was the cause, or even maybe Madness even reached into space itself, wouldn't that be an interesting end to civilisation. Where man once wanted to wander across the stars, now the disease that plagued everything under the sky would pollute even that lost dream.

Maka had found it all to be very depressing, she imagined the her of six months ago would have claimed that it would be stopped as well. That she and the Scythe would be able to defeat the Madness, avenge the friends and family that were ripped apart and destroyed by Arachnophobia and then create a Death Scythe. That not even the alliance that seemed to emerge between the Kishin and Arachne Gorgon would stop them with the aid of their friends, that there was nothing that the Kishin could do that would break them.

What a stupid girl. The Kishin could do a lot of things to her, there was nothing he wouldn't do to her, she was his trophy of war to do with as he wished and there were many things that he wished to do to her. Her soul apparently was what attracted him to her, the prospect of breaking her and manipulating her to obey his whims.

Many things that she was saving for later, when things were more peaceful and she met the right person, were easily taken from her. Sometimes by him, sometimes by one of his Clowns, other times he and they merely watched while the scarves tortured her, either way she was left with the urge to bite off her tongue.

Trying to escape wasn't an option. Trying to do so only caused suffering to the students that survived the death of Death (she made a joke!), she bite the Kishin's tongue when he invaded her mouth one night and she was forced to watch that black haired girl who shared her hair style share her torture. She was really sorry about that, she hoped Tsugumi forgave her.

She wasn't even given the freedom of calling him "the Kishin", she had to call him Asura, in a tone that suggested that she wasn't a slave or a toy that he could play with until he was bored but an actual lover. If that was what he thought love was, she would hate to see his idea of hate, though she might be able to see it today.

He was taking her, with one of his scarves as a stand-in for a collar, to Baba Yaga Castle. Where it once wallowed in the jungle, it was now proudly sat upon the burnt remnants of the DWMA, the corpses of recent "traitors" to the cause being held up on the walls by sharp objects of all sorts. Maka could have sworn that she saw a few familiar faces, Medusa was out of her child-form, perhaps forced out and Rachal sent home to prevent mankind from risking last-resorts, showing that Arachnophobia could be trusted with protecting mankind. Medusa was in a make-shift body, likely to be some poor student who made the mistake of pretending to be a hero or asking about what happened to a 'disappeared' friend or teacher.

She'd wonder what happened to Liz or Patti, Black Star was quickly taken out after he defeated Mifune, or Mifune taken out after being forced to kill a child, depending on what she heard, and Tsubaki was an 'honoured guest' in what could be a hostage situation. Kid had escaped, at least she didn't hear of a capture, with his Weapons after Lord Death perished in the battle and she hadn't heard anything from him. It was very rare to hear the Clowns talk about the outside world, discerning what was truth and what were cruel lies designed to break her further.

Maka hated the masks that were worn by the soldiers of Arachne as the Kishin and herself headed towards Arachne's personal chambers. She knew that some of them were human, how they kept to the pledges of their ancestors or what made them think that _this _was better than before might have confused her before but no longer, and she knew that they didn't like working with the Kishin. They didn't like their Messiah being shown as flawed, as someone other than this perfect being who would change things for the better, it was probably why she heard more cranking when the troops turned, a sign of them being Artifact Soldiers. No good having troops that questioned the leadership, better to purge them with impossible missions.

Arriving in the chambers was a task, Maka could swear that she could sense the panic in distinct souls as she was marched through the last few defences, Arachne seemed very paranoid, as if it was Ms Marie and Ms Azusa. If it was, she pitied them, their souls were not looking very strong and they weren't bound to last much longer, whether before death or them becoming a pet to Arachnophobia to be left in the claws of that Chainsaw who committed countless sins.

She hoped it was the former, for their sake.

Large and elegant, a nice little table that looked more fit for tea than talking was set out with Arachne on one end, an empty seat on the other, and a strange tanned man on the left middle side. Wearing a strange set of clothing, a checkered flat cap with a tank top for one, he seemed to be as calm as Arachne while the Kishin just seemed upset. The new person seemed to be a mix of souls, all of them in sevenths, with a strange presence coming from the book he had strapped to his trousers, he seemed very similar to Arachne in their confident manner.

"I didn't know there were others." The Kishin simply said as he took a seat.

"The world is full of surprises, as I have found, and the fun is in finding them out and documenting them." His words seem to upset the Kishin, for some strange reason, as Maka began to feel her collar become more and more tight around her neck. Her survival instincts forced her to try and reason with him.

"Please…Asura…stop…." She hated how pitiful her voice could become, it simply made her look as weak as everyone now thought her to be, or rather as she had become. It worked, however, as the Kishin relented and loosened the scarves.

He turned to the two of them, seemingly happy with that reaction. "I hope you don't intend to do such thing to myself. It would not turn out well for you, or any of your subordinates. My little Maka almost suffered the price." He informed them, pretending that he had little choice in his reaction to the stranger's words.

"Now, now. No need to fight, I'm sure your pet can be cheered up." Arachne's smile seemed giant, maybe because something bad was going to happen to Maka. "Crona, enter."

Maka now noticed the long chain Arachne had in her hand, leading to outside the room, as a tall and lanky figure nervously stepped out and walked over to Arachne and sat on her lap, allowing her to caress and search his body with her arms. The black robe, however low-cut it had become, and the familiar pink hair almost made Maka leap for joy had it not been for the look in his eyes being broken once more and Arachne doing things to him that a relative really shouldn't.

"What is your command, Lady Arachne?" Crona said in a robotic voice, snuggling in further into Arachne's body as if it was expected of him. What happened to him during those six months? Was the Morality Manipulation Machine used on him? No, there wasn't enough 'sport' in that, he was going to be broken the old-fashioned way as Maka was.

Slowly and painfully.

"Just sit there and be good, we wouldn't need to bring back Kim and Jackie or even Giriko, now do we?" The Chainsaw. Maka didn't know how but they had gone from a man to a girl after Stein sacrificed himself, Arachne seemed the type to use change to the full advantage.

"I suppose I should bring out my own." The tanned man then, a bit quickly, relented. "Gopher, bring him in." Whoever this Gopher was, they seemed loyal to this tanned person. Maka would hate to be the person doomed to be the pet of-

It was Kid.

Kid was stepping, or rather limping, behind this Gopher person before stopping at a certain distance from the table. If he recognised Maka or Crona, he only showed it with a second of raised eyebrows, the Kishin seemed amused.

"It appears my younger sibling was not made of stronger stuff." Being unable to grow beyond one sanzu line had that consequence.

"Indeed, I had Gopher break him in. I was too busy with other things." More likely that he wanted to watch one pet show his loyalty by breaking in another victim for this monster. "Kid has been extremely thankful for such an opportunity to learn. Show your thanks to Gopher for teaching you."

Kid then got on his knees and began licking the top of Gopher's shoes. It appeared that he had been trained for this, Maka's eyes began to tear as Arachne made a joke about having Crona do something similar with other body positions.

All three of them were so young. Their captors were immortal, their influence could extend even to the stars in space. Maka wondered if she had the courage to bite off her tongue now, the last time she had tried was when Soul 'broke'. She chickened out, in the end.

Even now, all she could do was cry as those who had taken the world laughed.


End file.
